I have always loved dark, hidden places. I found a kindred spirit in Steven Smith, author of Underground London Travels Beneath the City Streets. He takes us down the hidden rabbit holes of London (and they are legion!) Each leading to it’s own Wonderland. Curiouser and curiouser! Starting with a visit to London’s underground rivers, Underground London captures the imagination.
London has been building over itself since the Romans called it “Londinium” and built a wall around it so they could charge taxes at the gate. Steven immediately dives down to these deepest foundations and slowly brings us up through the layers. Roman London is a feast of unexpected treasures like the gladiator skeleton found behind a wall of the Guildhall- a FEMALE gladiator skeleton. Anglo-Saxon London and Medieval London is underfoot everywhere a Londoner turns. and the chapter on Tudor London reads like a scandalous, modern British tabloid.
I think my favorite chapter is about the “lifters” of London. This is a job title for men who lift human remains from what was supposed to be their final resting place and relocate them in more permanent (for now) quarters. The need for these services are not limited to just the occasional ancient grave disturbed by modern landscaping. Oh no! We are talking about the bones of thousands – people who were laid to rest in plague pits or ancient, common crypts. Some of these pits were broken open by bombs during the Blitz, others by major construction projects sinking their foundations down into previous ages of the city.
Then we get to examine the lives of men working underground at night, walking the subterranean lines of the Tube for a living. And for Fairy-lovers – there are also miniature tube stations to perfect scale. Though they were created for an underground mail transport, they were never fully used yet they remain perfectly functional. It’s easy to imagine sprites and fairies and a shrunken Alice secretly using them with regularity.
Often the most visited and exposed of historic attractions in London are the ones holding the deepest secrets. One day I will tour Westminster Abbey. If you are on the tour with me, you’ll recognize me by my Cheshire Cat grin. Thanks to Steven Smith’s Underground London, I’ll be thinking about all the little secrets tucked all around us that many tour guides are not even aware of!
How about you? What secret places to you relish? What places cross your mind with equal parts fear and fascination?
(Cover art from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Children’s Golden Library edition. and Underground London by Steven Smith)